So, there I am, lying flat on my back, with a radioactive potion swirling around my insides, now being elevated above the ground and floating off into this whirring humming cylindrical tube. It was an other-worldly experience. In fact, whereas the first time round back in July, I found the whole thing uncomfortable, scary, and claustrophobic, this time it was as though I was buoyed up on the wings of eagles.
Talking of which, these last two weeks, unbelievably, have been a real-time experience for me of what Isaiah talks about when he says
‘they that wait on the Lord shall soar on wings as eagles” *
and what David describes, when he writes
“your youth is renewed like the eagle’s”. *
I just feel so “carried along” as it were, during this time, with a sense of renewed vigour and, dare I say it, youthfulness. Even Anna remarked, yesterday “I don’t know what those pills you’re taking are doing, but your hair looks really healthy”. These days I’m happy to grab whatever compliments I get!
The eagle, of course, soars skilfully using updrafts and thermals to rise ever higher, and does so, seemingly without any effort, which is probably how it comes to personify, for these biblical writers, the easy strength of youth. It puts me in mind of yet another couplet, this time from an Urdu poet, that takes me right back to the days when we lived in Pakistan and learnt that wonderful language in the early 80’s.
Tundi-e-baad-e-mukhalif se na ghabra ae uqaab
Ye tou chalti hai tujhe ooncha uraaney ke liye
Fear not the contrary wind, O Eagle
Know that it only blows so that you can fly yet higher.
Those contrary winds, then, that have been blowing in and through our lives these past few months, are they not also designed to carry us yet higher, and to soar on wings as eagles, and to see more clearly, and begin, in some small way, to comprehend God's grand design in taking us along this particular pathway?
- Isaiah 40:29-31
- Psalm 103:5
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